Private Notation From The Stars

[Arcturus Dinn]

"Faker?" For a moment there, Arcturus actually looked a little hurt. Even with her obviously joking tone. He shook his head in defiance of that claim, and took one of her hands in his. "Never. Not with you."

No doubt Hix was at his side rolling his eyes or making gagging faces but he didn't care. The idea that she even thought he'd pull a stunt like that affected him more than he'd ever expected it would.

He released her hand soon after so that she could twirl, and upon seeing the tattoo he nodded appreciatively. "Mm, yes, very nice. Great design, Ish, and you can barely even tell the runes are there. They don't detract from your art at all."

Her question had him chuckle.

"Yeah, well, you're right. I can't keep coming in here fainting on Hix, can I? Figure he can give me a crash course while we're here - oh, did I mention we'd be sticking around for a little while? We'll be sticking around for a little while - and then I can get some synthflesh or something to practice on once I have the basics down pat."

A long road ahead of him before he could even think about imbuing at the same time, but a start was a start.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Relieved that he was all right, Ishani basked in Arcturus’ praises and kissed his hand. Hix was probably on the verge of throwing up at the sight.

“Sticking around today, or for the next couple of days?” she asked. If they were just going to hang around here all day long while Arc learned how to tattoo, she was gonna have to go get them lunch. She also couldn’t remember whether they’d decided on a set date of departure, a limit to this weird little impromptu vacation of theirs…

Hey, Arc was Maliphant’s apprentice, wasn’t he? Theoretically he could stay here as long as he damn well pleased, with little to no repercussions from the Academy. As long as Ishani was his companion, the same applied to her. No wonder why Darth Neferu thought she had seduced him as a power play—those were some pretty sweet benefits!

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Arcturus shrugged to her question, apparently not having given it that much of a thought. "Long enough for me to gather the basics." He paused, then realized he was making sweeping decisions for the both of them.

He stepped away from Hix, who turned and busied himself with a customer soon after anyway, and gently reached out to touch her cheek. "As long as that's okay with you, of course? Sorry, I should have been better about communicating my thoughts, rather than just making plans..."

He pondered on that for a second, then frowned.

"I can make up for any missed lessons you might have? Teach you a thing or two, like we discussed being a possibility? No blood magic, though... I'm serious about that one, Ish."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“As long as you can put in a good word for me, or something,” she replied with a shrug. “Can you use Daddy’s credentials to avoid getting your girlfriend suspended, expelled, imprisoned and/or flayed alive for missing classes?”

He mentioned giving her some lessons, and she broke out into a huge grin. “What’s that? You’re going to teach me blood magic?” She cupped a hand to her ear. “Oh, how nice! The perfect trick for children’s birthday parties.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"Oh, you did not just refer to Darth Empyrean as Daddy!" Arcturus looked genuinely horrified by the manner in which she'd said it, and he shook his head all at once. "Nope, no way, no more of that..." But then he let out a chuckle, and sighed. "I dunno, I've never been stopped from coming and going before, certainly not been threatened with being kicked out."

Was that all because of Maliphant? Or was it just the way things were? Weren't Acolytes meant to go out and learn things..?

He blinked, then smiled at her. "Tell you want, anyone gives you any chit for it and I'll come give'em what for, alright?" He meant it, too, in his own stupidly naive way.

What she said next had him groaning, and over his shoulder Hix was cackling. Clearly bug face hadn't actually stopped listening in on their conversation, great. Ah well at least he wasn't making kissy faces anymore.

"Girl, I swear, I will end you," he teased, before sighing. "Alright, Hix, why don't you patch up her open-wound and then I'll pay what's due and we'll get out of your hair for a bit? Message me when you're free, and I'll pop in for those private lessons you promised."

"They ain't gonna be free you know!" he said, waving his two right arms at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know..." Then Arc looked at Ishani. "Promised to alchemize a tat gun for him" he explained with a mischievous grin.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"He's your Daddy, not mine," she replied defensively. Leaning toward his ear, she whispered, "I'm also not loudly announcing that your daddy is a Darth in the middle of a public space on karking Coruscant, ya goof."

"Tell you want, anyone gives you any chit for it and I'll come give 'em what for, alright?"

"I would pay to see that," she replied. "We're overdue to get in another tussle with authority, I'd say."

"Girl, I swear, I will end you."

"I can't imagine a sweeter end." She blanched a little when Arc referred to her tattoo as an open wound, only to be distracted again by his next words. "Alchemize a tat gun? To do what? Imbue them on its own, so you won't have to come in and faint all over the place?"

She sat long enough to have her open wound treated, then eagerly left the tattoo parlor, glad to be free of the sterile alcohol smell.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Okay, okay, let's backtrack a second; ain't nobody actually using the term Darth Maliphant in the middle of Coruscant. Nope, more likely the boy simply said Mal, but still... Tags gotta be made. Either way Arcturus shook his head and beamed his usual grin. "I doubt he'd appreciate it being said like that" he muttered.

Soon enough the tattoo was cleaned and covered, and care instructions were handed off to Ishani. Arc leaned against the counter, handed the man a card to pay for the work, and then waved when it came time to leave.

Heading out into the late afternoon air, or maybe it was closer to evening by this point, Arcturus carefully swung an arm around Ishani's shoulder, careful not to apply any weight to her back, and held her close.

"Nah, I think he just wants to speed up the process or something. He never gave me the details." He shrugged. "So, Lady Sword, where'd you want to eat?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Ah, so he would prefer to just be called ‘Dad’?”

What a silly joke this was.

On their way out, with her back still sore, he asked about food. “Finally!” she exclaimed. “Now you’re speaking my language. You’re the one who knows your way around, I’m just a tourist. What’s your favorite place to eat at?”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Talks turned to food, and Ishani wanted his expertise on what was worth sinking their teeth into. He pondered it for a moment, walking alongside her, and tried to consider where they could head. Pizza? He felt like he'd done pizza a lot. Atrisian? Nah...

"There's a Chalactan place a few floors up" he stated, tilting his head lightly to one side. "Absolutely delicious, packed full of flavour. How's your tolerance for spice, by the way? We can go for something milder, if you prefer, still flavourful but yeah... Not so much heat? Either way, it's great."

Curious as to what she'd make of that suggestion, Arcturus led her back toward the turbolift.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Please,” she replied. “I’m a Chaldean. We’re weaned on spicy food.”

She soon proved this to be the case, hardly flinching at the considerable spice levels of the food she wound up ordering. Well, that’s not entirely true—the sauce that came with it made her wrinkle her nose a little, but she poured sugar on her tongue to neutralize it.

“So, aside from hanging out in tattoo parlors and with some Jedi’s mom, what did you do on Coruscant?” she asked Arc. “Did you go out and party? Lock yourself in a room with a bunch of books and read the whole time?...” She smirked. The latter certainly sounded like something he would do.

Meanwhile, the unfortunate gentleman sitting to their left started to sweat profusely. He guzzled ice water in a feeble attempt to stop the burn, then eventually resorted to dumping the entire glass on his head. Raising an eyebrow, Ishani looked at what he had ordered, then at her own food before shrugging it off. Lightweights.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Arcturus was a simple boy, as evidenced by his lack of cake-knowledge, so when he found something he liked he tended to stick to it. As such he ordered the dish he'd first tried and grown to love here, moderate spice levels - not too hot, but not super mild either - filled with some sort of meat, and spices enough that it was borderline red in colour. Accompanied by rice, of course, but a different, more floral variant than you'd have with your Atrisian food. There were flecks of colour found throughout the rice, too, some pinks and blues and greens, some of it was the rice itself, some of it were little add-ins. Either way, yummy.

He'd also ordered some sort of herbed flatbread, to help soak up the excess of sauce. He offered some of that to Ishani as she spoke.

"I mostly hid away" he confessed, with a small frown, "Jen was pretty understanding, let me steal Starlin's room when he was gone. You know how it is, being on a world like this where there's like a billion Jedi around," okay, exaggeration time, but still, "but uh... Honestly? Mostly I just helped her out. Fixed a busted panel for one of the doors, caught a mouse - Nostre, by the way - you know, that sort of thing. Existed."

He sighed, and glanced down at his foot before taking a mouthful of it. "It was... Nice. How I imagine it'd be to have a family, you know?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"It is nice," she agreed. Her homesickness had already spoken volumes as to just how much she missed her family.

Of course, Arcturus had other things to drive him back to the Sith. He'd spoken already of his desire to continue his studies, and she'd seen the intense longing in his eyes, that hunger for knowledge. Yet here they were, back on Coruscant. "Do you want to see Jen again?"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I wish I could" he confessed, rather sheepishly, not meeting her eyes. "But I don't know... Maybe she wouldn't want to see me. Maybe Starlin would be annoyed if he found out. He didn't have to take me home, you know? He could of, I don't know, thrown me at the Jedi or something, but he didn't. He gave me a family for a little while."

He frowned, and ran a hand down his face.

"But it isn't my family, is it? Would it be wrong of me to turn up on her doorstep again, like some stray vornskr?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Don’t you have his or her number, or something? You could call them and ask first, if you’re that scared of just dropping in unannounced.” She sipped her drink. “It doesn’t sound like they’d sell you out now—not when they could’ve sold you out while you were here last time.”

But she wouldn’t push it any further if he wasn’t comfortable with the idea. “Otherwise, uh… wanna go party?” Never mind that she had no idea how to party, or where to party, or why people partied in the first place. But she figured there had to be something to it if so many people did it.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I don't think they'd sell me out" he stated, in fact the very notion of that made his stomach feel all weird. "I just... I don't want to disturb their peace, you know?" Did she know? Did she even remotely understand what it was he was talking about? Because Arcturus barely did. He was the boy without any of this sort of thing, and all he could ever perceive himself as was a burden because of that.

No matter the reason for those circumstances.

He ate quietly for a little while as he considered it, before her question was posed. "Party?" he inquired like it was the most crazy thing he'd ever heard, "Chaos, Ishani, I wouldn't even know where to begin..."

Arcturus' mind drifted back to the Rands. He did have their numbers... "I'll uh... I'll be back in a minute, alright?"

Then he rose up, and made his way out of the restaurant. Glanced down at the comlink which had since made its way into his grasp. Then he called, Starlin first... It made sense to call Starlin before bothering his mother.

Much to his surprise, the Padawan picked up.

"Uh, hey, Starlin, it's Arc..." A slight pause, in case he chose to end the call, or say something, before he hurriedly fumbled over the words he wanted to say. "So I'm uh, in your neck of the woods, and I wondered if mom-- Jen, uh... If your mom... If she'd maybe mind a visit..? Well, what I more mean is... Would you mind if I reached out to her..? It's Arc, by the way... In case I didn't say..."

Ishani Dinn Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Hey Thesh, what’s up man?”

It swiftly became apparent, based on the background noise, that Starlin was at a rock concert of some kind—though he endeavored to hear and be heard better by moving away from the venue.

“Yeah yeah, no problem!” he replied. He had no clue why Thesh was referring to himself as ‘Arc’, but then he might be mishearing him anyway. “I’ll call her and tell her you’ll be there. Go right ahead.”

Once he hung up, Starlin gave a little whooping cheer. “I fethin’ got his ass coming back! Suck it, Sith Eternal! Woo!”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Thesh. That was the name which greeted him on the other side, along with all the general din of a concert. Feth, had it been so long that he'd gotten himself a name in the meantime? "Cool... Thanks... Enjoy your concert" he said, before the other man hung up. Then he frowned, leaned back against the wall and set his head back. Half moved the com back to his belt, before shaking his head and lifting it back up.

Threw Starlin a quick text. It's Arcturus now, by the way. You can call me Arc. Thesh is, well, it's complicated. Thanks again.

It felt important. Dead names were dead for a reason, even if it still hovered around him like a little bug. Chaos, why had he kept it as a surname? Oh yeah, to make it easier on everyone else. Right. Don't do that, folks.

Either way after a moment longer he headed back inside, and found Ishani at their table. "So, uh... Yeah, you want to meet Jen..?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"Chaos, Ishani, I wouldn't even know where to begin..."

"I saw some places on the way here..." She trailed off, quickly realizing what a recipe for disaster it would be. Besides, he rushed out to call his Jedi friend anyway. She remained seated at the table, sipping her drink, until he returned.

Evidently, Starlin had said yes. "Sure," she replied, standing up. "Uh, is it far...?"

Not far at all, if Arc really hadn't strayed too much outside the neighborhood of Gavas-Eclat, where Jen lived. Ishani tagged along, following Arc's lead to the apartment complex. She didn't really know what to expect, but she was mainly there to offer support. Force knew Arc needed it, given how nervous he seemed about the whole visit.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Down. They headed down.

Even after months away Arcturus had not forgotten the path which would lead him back there. Like second nature, at this point, like, well, a homecoming. That thought only strained his heart all the more, had his gut wrenching in anticipation of rejection. Force, what if she didn't even want him there? Worse, what if she just pretended that she did while secretly hating every second of it?

What if...

His wayward thoughts took him all the way to the door of the apartment, if Ishani had said anything during that time it had fallen on completely deaf ears. He blinked, realizing his hand was just shy of the door itself, poised to knock, and glanced around himself. Clearly he didn't even realize they'd arrived until precisely that moment.

A slow inhale to calm his nerves...

And then Arcturus knocked, immediately reaching out for Ishani's hand. You know, for support.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

They weren’t waiting outside for long. The door slid open—without any problems staying open this time—and there stood a middle-aged woman in grease-stained denims.

“Hey!” She greeted Arc with a big smile. She had a slight gap between her two front teeth, which in all honesty did little to detract from her beauty. “Starlin called and said you were coming. I’d give you a hug, but I just got home and I’m still in my work clothes. How have you been?” Spotting Ishani, she added, “Oh, hello. I’m Jen.”

Ishani was suddenly very shy, half-hiding behind Arcturus as he (presumably) introduced her. Though she didn’t say anything, Jen’s first thought upon viewing the little blonde was that Arc had brought her another lost Sith youth to hide.

Arcturus Dinn​